SACO — Facing its toughest challenge yet, the Thornton Academy football team showed that it can make big plays on both sides of the ball, sending Scarborough to its first loss of the season with a 35-7 win on Saturday.

The Red Storm got the ball first and drove down the field quickly thanks to a 40-yard pass from Dillon Russo to Merrick Madden. Russo also picked up two yards on a 4th and 1 play at the Trojans’ 12-yard line to continue the drive. Scarborough looked destined to cross the goal line before Dakota Tarbox sacked Russo on third and goal from the 4-yard line. The Red Storm went for it on fourth down, and a bad snap was recovered by Thornton linebacker Bobby Begin and returned 75 yards for a touchdown.

“It went by quick, but still, I didn’t want to look back. I just kept running as fast as I could,” Begin said. “It was huge, because they were driving the field. And it just gave us all the emotion and the momentum that just drove us to score, and score again.”

The Trojans’ defense held Scarborough to just one first down on its next drive, with a 14-yard run by Dan LeClair on third down, which was the only play over two yards.

On Thornton’s first stab at running its offense, the Trojans quickly moved the ball into Scarborough territory. Once they got into Red Storm territory, the Trojans shot themselves in the foot with consecutive holding calls to negate first downs. Then on third and 12, the Red Storm returned the favor, as it was called for defensive holding for an automatic first down. Two plays later, Andrew Libby took a sweep to the right and ran for a 19-yard touchdown, giving TA a 14-0 lead.

The Red Storm again drove down the field, this time with Russo using his arm rather than his legs. Scarborough got the ball to the Thornton 19 before a fourth down pass to Charlie Raybine ended up short of the first down.

The Trojans needed just eight plays to drive the ball 93 yards for another touchdown, with Nick Kenney’s 5-yard run capping off the drive with just 55 seconds left in the half.

Thornton Academy blocked a 32-yard field goal attempt as time expired to keep the score 21-0 at the half.

The teams swapped punts on their opening possessions of the second half before the Trojans took their second drive 90 yards for a touchdown. Libby scored on a 2-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter to cap the drive.

Scarborough finally scored after going exclusively to the passing game, as Russo hit Chris Cyr with a 7-yard touchdown pass with 9:27 to go. After Thornton went 3-and-out on its next drive, the Red Storm drove down again before the Trojans made a defensive stand.

On first down at the Thornton 30, 5′ 6” Josh Coffin batted away a pass to 6′ 1” Greg Viola. After jack Grondin stuffed Russo for no gain, Alex Rizeakos pressured Russo into an incomplete pass. On 4th down, Cody Lynn and Begin stopped Russo short of the first down to give the Trojans the ball back.

The Trojans drove down into Scarborough territory before Libby lost 19 yards on fourth down to give the Red Storm the ball back. After a 26-yard pass to Ben Greenberg put Scarborough at the 25-yard line, Begin intercepted a Russo pass to squash another drive. Three plays later, Libby ran 68 yards up the middle for a touchdown.

Thornton coach Kevin Kezal said those two turnovers by Begin were key plays that helped the Trojans stay undefeated.

“When you get a turnover on defense, that’s huge. You prevent points,” said Kezal. “Bobby has been a great player for us. He made two great plays today.”

Thornton’s high-scoring offense gets much of the attention for the team’s success so far, but Kezal said he thinks his defense is just as good.

“We know we’re a good defensive team. We gave up some yards between the 20s, but we really toughened up inside the 20-yard line,” he said.

— Contact Wil Kramlich at 282-1535, Ext. 323 or follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.